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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26126047">Love and Other Delusions</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrylix/pseuds/cherrylix'>cherrylix</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>SEVENTEEN (Band)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Catboys &amp; Catgirls, F/M, Fluff, Psychic Abilities, Slice of Life, Tarot, airheaded anime girl jeon wonwoo, chan's sassy inner monologue, chockfull of stupid anime tropes, comedy anime, jeonghan showing up just to be a nuisance. love that for him, the self indulgence in this fic. astounding</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-16</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 08:48:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>3,447</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26126047</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/cherrylix/pseuds/cherrylix</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>His thoughts have hijacked his typing fingers in the Google search bar as he seemingly types in cures for simping instead of Googling ace of cups meaning like he planned.  Fuck.</p><p>“Focus, Chan,” he mutters to himself.  “You’re not in a shoujo manga.  Grow up and move on.”</p><p>//or: airheaded catgirl wonhee is insistent that chan is her soulmate and that psychics are real.  unfortunately for chan, she's right on both counts.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Jeon Wonwoo/Lee Chan | Dino</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>A Sip of Summer Wine</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Love and Other Delusions</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>this fic is so self indulgent its sickening...not even in the good way just in the stupid way.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Wonhee pops up one day in Chan’s life totally unexpectedly. Then, she <em> keeps </em>on popping up. Like, everywhere and all the time. In a very stalkerly manner. </p><p> </p><p>Chan is pretty sure she’s a psychic, the way she always knows wherever he is.  It sounds creepy because it is creepy. She’s also always got a pair of floppy black cat ears whenever he sees her that he swears must be a headband, but he’s never actually seen her take them off. She’s basically a furry -- not that it makes her any less hot.  Because she is hot. Very hot. </p><p> </p><p>Unfortunately, her general whimsical and dumb personality -- as well as her, you know, stalkerish tendencies -- greatly detracts from her physical attractiveness.</p><p> </p><p>So, an attractive older woman in a cat headband is stalking Chan. Pretty normal stuff, right?</p><p> </p><p>Unfortunately, Chan isn’t some incel freak that would love to be in this sort of scenario.  In fact, he wants out of whichever dumb doujin that he’s been shoved in by God before he gets assaulted by even more stupid anime tropes.  </p><p> </p><p>Chan first meets Wonhee at one of his classes during his first year of college.  It sounds normal until he realizes that not only is she not enrolled in his class, she’s not enrolled in any course at his college.  It’s like her name doesn’t exist anywhere, but she’s there for whatever reason.  To be exact, she shows up one day in front of his classroom right when he needs to get to class.</p><p> </p><p>“Oh hey!” she says, waving at Chan enthusiastically.  Chan waves back tentatively.  He does not know who this strange woman is and how she knows him.  “You’re Chan, right?”</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah..” Chan responds hesitantly.  “How do you know my name?”  He’s not as on guard as he would be, when he encounters Wonhee in the future.  For now, she’s just some pretty stranger, weird of course, but not overtly creepy or anything.  Her cat ear headband is strange for sure, but some people had kinks like that, so who is Chan to judge?  The attention of a hot girl was enough for Chan.</p><p> </p><p>“Easy,” she says, “You’re my soulmate!” and then she just gives him this dumb smile and bounces on her heels and rocks back and forth.  Chan can only stare, dumbfounded.  Suddenly, she seems way less hot than she was before and a lot more delusional.</p><p> </p><p>“Soulmates are fake,” he says, just barely suppressing a “dumbass” from slipping out.  Chan doesn’t want to stoop to calling people names, even crazy girls.  He eyes her with a newfound suspicious lens, wary of the strange girl’s mental stability.  </p><p> </p><p>“No, they’re real,” she says, unfailingly cheerfully.  Whatever harsh tone Chan has used has seemingly zero effect on her cheer because she still wears that dumb grin.  “I know because I’m psychic!  I wanted to find my soulmate, so I did a reading for myself.  That’s how I found you!”</p><p> </p><p>“...Psychic.”  Chan says weakly.  His view of the girl has warped dramatically with her baseless announcement.  “Those aren’t real either.”</p><p> </p><p>“That’s wrong also,” she says with all the grace of someone stuck in their own bubble.  Chan is genuinely concerned at this point.</p><p> </p><p>“Listen,” Chan says, shifting on his feet.  He glances nervously at the door to his lecture that Wonhee is currently blocking.  “I gotta get to class.  Mind moving out of the way?”</p><p> </p><p>She gracefully sides steps out of the way, still beaming.  “Anything for you, soulmate.  Besides, we’ll meet again soon, anyway.”</p><p> </p><p>“Uh…” Chan says, making a beeline into his classroom to avoid talking to her.  Just as he brushes past her to his classroom, he feels something being slipped into his hoodie pocket.  He turns around, mouth in the process of opening to yell or something, but she’s gone.  His mouth hangs open dumbly as he stares at the spot where she used to be.</p><p> </p><p>He reaches into his pocket to pull out the slip of paper she put in.  It’s not some scrap paper like he thought, but made out of firmer material, cardstock.  Not just any card, but a glossy tarot card embossed with an intricate design.  It shows a single cup with “Ace of Cups” written on it in a fancy script.</p><p> </p><p>“Ace of Cups?” he says out loud.  “I don’t even know what that means!”  he crumples the card and stuffs it back into his pocket, wondering why he even wants to keep it.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>Chan looks it up later.  Against his will, all his thoughts are swirling with the strange girl from earlier.  Her long glossy black hair, glinting in the sunlight just like the card she slipped him.  Even though she didn’t seem to understand that life wasn’t a middle schooler’s fantasy…she was very pretty.  Chan could appreciate her from a purely aesthetic view, acknowledging that yes, while she looked way too pretty to be interested in Chan, she also was a little bit delusional and should probably be avoided.</p><p> </p><p>His thoughts have hijacked his typing fingers in the Google search bar as he seemingly types in cures for simping instead of Googling ace of cups meaning like he planned.  Fuck.</p><p> </p><p>“Focus, Chan,” he mutters to himself.  “You’re not in a shoujo manga.  Grow up and move on.”</p><p> </p><p>Moving on from this morning’s incident seems a little hard when he’s still hung up on that stupid tarot card slipped in his hoodie.  Whatever.  Chan’s coping the best he can.</p><p> </p><p>He scans the search results for Ace of Cups, some boiling frustration over the incomprehensible girl bubbling out, noticeable in the angry tapping on his finger against the keyboard.  He mutters some gibberish to himself as he reads the contents of the first search result that came up.</p><p> </p><p>“I should look at the upright meaning, right?” he questions to himself, glancing down at the seemingly innocuous tarot card.  “I’m not sure what ‘reversed’ means in this context.”  The deluge of new information fills his already overwhelmed and bewildered mind like a rushing waterfall.   The card winks innocently up at him from its upright position on his desk.</p><p> </p><p>The meaning for Ace of Cups is… “Love and new relationships,” he reads aloud.  “Seriously?”  He glares at his computer screen before switching his scathing look to the tarot card and continues reading.  “Love and compassion flow through you.  Now is the perfect time to open your heart to these new feelings.  As an Ace card, the card is an invitation.  Ace of Cups carries the potential for fulfillment but only if you embrace it.”</p><p> </p><p>Chan takes a minute for the gigantic time waster he just indulged in to sink in.  <em> What a scam, </em>he thinks, but it feels a bit weaker than normal.  </p><p> </p><p><em> Life isn’t a John Green novel, </em> he tells himself. He has to keep repeating it, has to keep reminding himself to not romanticize life’s random series of events,  because if -- no, <em> when </em>he gets his heart broken, who’s going to be dealing with painstakingly glueing back the pieces? He has to protect himself from the inevitable disappointment. </p><p> </p><p>Hopefully, he wouldn’t ever need to see his so-called soulmate again and this whole hoax could be put to rest.</p><p> </p>
<hr/><p> </p><p>God must have abandoned Chan somewhere in between his first meeting with Wonhee and the next, because she doesn’t just leave one mysterious card. At the very least, the next time she sees Chan, he knows to be a little cautious of her.  The other (terribly stupid) part of his brain is still thinking about hot older women and cat ears.</p><p> </p><p>So their second chance meeting happens at a convenience store frequented by the typical broke college student -- i.e., himself. As he browses the snack aisle, he quietly curses his bad luck. Of course he would lose money to that scheming senior.  Jeonghan, the scheming senior in question, had conned Chan out of his money in a fraud so ridiculous that, retrospectively, he should’ve seen through. Just thinking about it makes Chan feel angry and also ashamed of his intelligence.</p><p> </p><p>“Better luck next time, Channie,” Jeonghan had laughed. He had patted his back with a gently mocking touch that makes Chan grit his teeth and put on his best totally-not-gonna-slap-a-bitch grin, causing several people back away from him fearfully. </p><p> </p><p>Whatever.  Chan was soo over it.  At least, that's what he was trying to convince himself of as he stared despondently at the glossy, colorful instant ramen packets stacked on the shelf in front of him. Instant ramen was a perfectly respectable meal if you knew what brands to buy and the best methods of preparation, but now, he only had enough money for the cheapest, shittiest brand in the store.  Just another reminder of how conniving Jeonghan was.  </p><p> </p><p>“I’m losing it,” he mutters to himself, clutching the cheapest instant ramen cup like a goddamn lifeline. And given that this ramen brand will be responsible for keeping him alive for the next three weeks, it kind of is. </p><p> </p><p>“Hi, Chan,” a low voice says out of nowhere.  He shrieks and wheezes, turning around so quickly he feels his neck snap.  </p><p> </p><p>“W-who?! Not funny?” he demands, chest heaving as he calms his racing heart. He comes face-to-face with an all too familiar face and almost drops his cheapass ramen.  “It’s you!” he squeaks ungracefully.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes,” agreed the delusional girl who’d appeared outside his lecture and gave him a random tarot card. “I did say we’d meet again, didn’t I?”</p><p> </p><p>“You said a lot of things,” Chan grumbles, shock fading into annoyance.  “And some of them -- no, <em> everything </em>that comes out of your mouth is deranged.  So excuse me if I took that with a grain of salt.” The bitterness from dealing with Jeonghan earlier combined with frustration from encountering someone he was hoping to never see again gives his words a slightly more acidic edge than he intended.  </p><p> </p><p>The girl flinches slightly, but recovers well enough.  “Were you going to buy that?” she nods at his cup ramen, tactically changing the subject.</p><p> </p><p>“Yeah,” Chan says, giving the ramen an undeserved look of disgust.  He’s not actually <em> that </em>disgusted by it -- just disgusted by what it represents.</p><p> </p><p>She smiles, bright and unfiltered, unperturbed by his rudeness. “I’ll pay for it,” she says warmly, and snatches it out of his hand before he can protest.</p><p> </p><p>Chan opens his mouth, but she’s already at the counter paying for his food when he blinks.  He snaps his mouth shut with an audible click.  The cashier, whose features are slack, doesn’t even bat an eye at the two furry, twitching cat ears perched atop the dark-haired girl’s head. <em> Are they crazy or am I crazy? </em> thinks Chan. <em> And if all the cashiers here are this zoned out, should I start stealing from here? </em></p><p> </p><p>She returns with the cup ramen and a pair of disposable chopsticks for him that she hands to him.  “Cup ramen for dinner today, huh?” she says conversationally.  Out of nowhere, she giggles a little at her words.  </p><p> </p><p>“Oh, uh, I guess,” says Chan, not wanting to explain Jeonghan’s little stint. He’s a little put off by her laughing because, for all her dumb grins and cheerful exclamations and general emotional expressiveness, he’s never heard her laugh. It doesn’t sound like what he would’ve expected. Not that he has ever thought about her laugh or anything, but you would think that somebody’s laugh would match their ugly personality, right? But her laugh is actually kind of cute.  He banishes the cursed thought into the netherworld.</p><p> </p><p>“So, what card did you draw that day?” says Wonhee. “Wait, don’t tell me. I can guess. Ace of cups, right?”</p><p> </p><p>“How did you know?” says Chan, wondering idly if she rigged it. </p><p> </p><p>“I’m pretty sure you know how,” she says slyly. “You know, buying that cup of ramen. It was cute of you to send me a signal like that.” She winks at him.</p><p> </p><p>“Signal?”</p><p> </p><p>“You know. One <em> cup </em> of ramen.” Chan stares at her blankly. “ <em> Cup. </em> Ace of cups. Cup of ramen. There’s a cup on the Ace of cups, and the ramen you bought comes in a <em> cup </em> made of <em> card </em>board. Hence, Ace of cups is your card. Come on, do I have to explain your own signal to you? </p><p> </p><p>“You are delusional,” he tells her. </p><p> </p><p>“Delusional and right? Does such a thing exist?” she says, sounding overly pleased. </p><p> </p><p>“You could’ve rigged it.” </p><p> </p><p>She shakes her head.  “The card you were going to draw is not predetermined.  I trusted that the right one would come out to guide you, and hoped that my initial presence would be enough to do the trick.”</p><p> </p><p>Chan isn’t sure what to make of this information, so he just shrugs. She seems pleased. </p><p> </p><p>“Ace of Cups!” she continues, shaking her head and chuckling. “I knew that we were soulmates, but I didn’t expect an <em> Ace of Cups! </em>We’re really destined for each other, huh.”</p><p> </p><p>“Look, um, whatever-your-name-is-” </p><p> </p><p>“Wonhee,” she interjects calmly.</p><p> </p><p>“Right, um, Wonhee.  I appreciate you buying the meal for me.  Thank you.  But I have to uh, actually eat it now.  And I’m sure you came here to buy something, so I don’t want to keep you.”  It’s a clear hint for her to leave him alone to his meagre dinner, but she doesn’t seem to get it</p><p> </p><p>“It’s okay, I already bought something.” From behind her back, she pulls out an instant ramen cup almost identical to his except for the flavoring.  While Chan had opted for a seafood flavored sodium meal, Wonhee had gone for a chicken flavor.  “Now we can eat together!”</p><p> </p><p>Her eyes are sparkling, and against his will, Chan finds himself conceding.  When he nods his head in assent, her cat ears twitch ever so slightly, giving away her joy.  They walk together to fill their ramen with hot water and then relocate to the back of the convenience store to sit at a counter and eat.  They break their chopsticks in silence.</p><p> </p><p>Wonhee seems content to bask in the peace. Without giving the noodles any time to soak in the salty broth, let alone detach from their cube-like form, she digs into the cheap ramen. Curiously enough, she doesn’t seem to mind the stiff quality of the (very) undercooked noodles.  Instead, she bites into the cube-shaped ramen with ease. Chan is weirdly transfixed by the odd sight of her canines. </p><p> </p><p>It’s Chan that first breaks the silence.  He tries to choose his words carefully so as to not offend, but as usual, his words come clumsily.  “Um, Wonhee?  About the soulmate thing you mentioned earlier..” He struggles to articulate himself without accusing her of being crazy point blank.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes?” she perks up.  “Are you finally coming around to the truth of my words?  I apologize if I came on too strong in my first impression, I didn’t intend to scare you off or anything.”</p><p> </p><p>“Er...no, that’s not it at all.  But do you really believe in that kind of nonse-uh, thing?”  Chan is trying his best here.  It’s not his fault Wonhee is an air headed anime girl who probably uses her horoscope as an excuse for her poor life decisions. </p><p> </p><p>He briefly glances down at his steaming cup ramen and wishes he had Wonhee’s teeth so he could eat the undercooked noodles as well.  Unfortunately, he still needs to wait for it to cook.</p><p> </p><p>“The cards don’t lie,” Wonhee says, waggling a chopstick at Chan’s face.  “And more importantly, my powers don’t lie.  It doesn’t matter the channel or outlet, my psychic powers have always shown me the correct future.  And my powers told me that we’re soulmates.” She beams.</p><p> </p><p>Ah.  So she’s one of <em> those </em>characters.  The one’s so confident in their own delusions because they haven’t mentally grown out of being a seventh grader.  Wonhee is a goddamn chuunibyou.</p><p> </p><p>Chan peels open his cup ramen in lieu of an answer.  He doesn’t know what to say to her that’s still polite because his inner monologue is a mess of self-pity and scathing comments.  Maybe he can play along and let her down gently?  Chan isn’t really in the business of being pursued by women and thus, has never had to reject anyone before.  Dramatic rooftop confessions were something better left in an anime, certainly not Chan’s failure of a romantic life in high school.  No, he was more the sort of person to harbor an embarrassing, repressed crush on anyone older person who made a particular effort to make him feel special and equal, despite being an underclassman (so yeah, Jeonghan.  Chan doesn’t want to talk about it).  High school had been an embarrassing shitshow for Chan.</p><p> </p><p>Maybe it makes sense that the only girl to ever show interest in Chan since middle school would still be mentally stuck in seventh grade.  </p><p> </p><p>Chan stares at his steaming cup of ramen and mentally wills it to cook faster so he can use eating as an excuse to not talk.  The absurd thought that maybe he can borrow some of Wonhee’s psychic powers to cook his ramen passes through his mind and causes him to snort.  </p><p> </p><p>With the mystical powers of normal hot water and time, Chan’s noodles cook themselves.  He feels tense as hell--no thanks to Wonhee-- and manages to slurp them all down in record time.  Wonhee has already finished hers by the time Chan is halfway through his (small) cup.</p><p> </p><p>Ah,” Wonhee says, once he’s finished his meal.  She peeks into his finished cup of ramen.  Chan starts at their sudden closeness, the top of Wonhee’s head just barely brushing his chin.  This puts him at eye level with her...cat ears.  Chan is still skeptical about the legitness of them, but he saw those motherfuckers <em> move.  </em>It couldn’t just be a headband.</p><p> </p><p>“What are you doing?” Chan asks uncomfortably.  She’s close enough that he can smell her shampoo, which is a little creepy (for him or for her?).</p><p> </p><p>“Reading your leftover ramen,” she says as if it should be obvious.  Which it is decidedly not, because what kind of answer is that?  “It’s kind of like reading someone’s tea leaves.” she clarifies.</p><p> </p><p>“What.”  Chan says.</p><p> </p><p>“You must’ve heard of reading tea leaves before, haven’t you?” she frowns at him, genuinely concerned. Chan doesn’t have the heart to tell her that he’s confused about something else.  </p><p> </p><p>“No, I got that part.”</p><p> </p><p>Wonhee pouts, obviously still not satisfied with his level of understanding. “The medium of reading the future doesn’t really matter,” she continues insistently. “As long as the powers are there, the future can be seen.  And I have excellent eyesight.”</p><p> </p><p>“You’re wearing glasses.”</p><p> </p><p>“Not related.”</p><p> </p><p>Chan is silently dumbfounded by how truly <em> stupid </em>this girl is.  He finds himself doing that a lot in Wonhee’s presence.  He just ends up letting her do whatever she wants to his poor ramen leftovers.</p><p> </p><p>She leans even closer to him to peer into his ramen cup.  “Well?” asks Chan nervously, just to distract himself from Wonhee’s body so near to his.  “What do you see?”</p><p> </p><p>“Hmm,” she hums, drawing back a little in order to look him in the eyes pensively.  “Something good will happen to you soon.”</p><p> </p><p>“Good?” Chan says incredulously.  Despite himself, he was waiting to hear what she would say.  This vague, generic premonition that sounds like something off a horoscope site is not what he expected.  “That’s so vague!”</p><p> </p><p>Wonhee rolls her eyes and huffs.  “Something generous you did a while ago will return again and you will be repaid for your kindness,” she elaborates, “It will probably come in the form of money.”</p><p> </p><p>Chan perks up.  “Money?  How much?” he says excitedly.  Money is exactly what he needs right now.  Chan is willing to take back all the mean things he said about Wonhee if her prediction actually comes true.</p><p> </p><p>“Not sure,” she sighs.  “But it’s something you desperately need.”</p><p> </p><p>“Hey.” he frowns.</p><p> </p><p>“Kidding,” Wonhee pouts.  It’s not as endearing as she thinks it is.</p><p> </p><p>She holds out a deck of cards expectantly.  “Pick one.” she says.</p><p> </p><p>“So suddenly?!”  he squeaks, but picks one anyway.</p><p> </p><p>“Is it the six of pentacles?” Wonhee asks.</p><p> </p><p>“What is this, a magic show?” grumbles Chan, but then looks at his card.  “It is!” he gasps.  He looks at her.  “What does it mean?”</p><p> </p><p>“Basically the same thing your ramen said,” she shrugs, “So it’s just confirming the prediction.”</p><p> </p><p>“Helpful,” he rolls his eyes.</p><p> </p><p>“It increases your chances of receiving double the amount of money,” she intones.</p><p> </p><p>“Is that true?” he perks up, already dreaming of the restaurants he’ll go to and meat he’ll buy with his new money.</p><p> </p><p>“No.” she admits.  “I just wanted to see you smile."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>lets get those chan fics friends!! that chan food!  that chan bread!  this fic feeds such a specific niche, but its still lee chan food right?<br/>please leave kudos and comments if you enjoyed hahha</p></blockquote></div></div>
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